Fire resistant fibrous materials may be used in upholstery, cushions, mattress ticking, panel fabric, padding, bedding, insulation, materials for parts in devices or appliances, etc. Such materials may be formed from natural and/or synthetic fibers, and then treated with fire retardant chemicals which may include halogen-based and/or phosphorous-based chemicals, along with certain metal oxides such as ferric oxide, stannic oxide, antimony trioxide, titanium dioxide, etc. These fire resistant materials may be produced by depositing these metal oxides, within or on the fibers, for example, by the successive precipitation of ferric oxides and a mixture of tungstic acid and stannic oxide, by the successive deposition of antimony trioxide and stannic oxide, by the successive deposition of antimony trioxide and titanium dioxide. In another process for imparting fire retardancy to such materials, a single processing bath may be used wherein a dispersion of a chlorinated hydrocarbon and finely divided antimony oxide is padded on the fabric material. Near the fibrous material's combustion temperature, the antimony oxide reacts with hydrogen chloride (generated by degradation of the chlorinated hydrocarbon) to form antimony oxychloride which acts to suppress the flame.
In another process for making such fibrous materials semi-permanently to permanently fire resistant, the fire retardant chemicals may be reacted with the cellulose or protein functionalities of the natural fibers in the material. For example, the cellulose in the fabric fibers may be esterified with diammonium hydrogen orthophosphate. Alternatively, amidophosphates may be reacted with trimethylol melamine to form a thermosetting resin within the fibrous materials (see U.S. Pat. No. 2,832,745 (Hechenblefkner), issued Apr. 29, 1958) or a phosphorous containing N-hydroxy-methyl amide and tetrakis(hydroxymethyl)phosphonium chloride may be incorporated in the fibrous materials by thermal induced pad curing (see U.S. Pat. No. 4,026,808 (Duffy), issued May 31, 1977).
Fire retardant chemicals may also be coated onto the fibrous materials. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,955,032 (Mischutin), issued May 4, 1976, which discloses a process using chlorinated-cyclopentadieno compounds and chlorobrominated-cyclpentadieno compounds, either alone or in combination with metal oxides, which are suspended in a latex medium and then cured to render natural and synthetic fibrous materials and blends of thereof fire retardant. See also U.S. Pat. No. 4,600,606 (Mischutin), issued Jul. 15, 1986, which discloses a method for flame retarding textile and related fibrous materials which uses a water-insoluble, non-phosphorous containing brominated aromatic or cycloaliphatic compounds along with a metal oxide to treat fabrics for protection against splashes of molten metals or glass, as well as a U.S. Pat. No. 4,702,861 (Farnum), issued Oct. 27, 1987, which discloses a flame retardant composition comprising a dispersion of phosphorous-containing compounds and metal oxides in latex which, upon exposure to elevated temperatures and/or flame, reportedly creates a substantially continuous protective film generally encapsulating and/or enveloping the surface of the article onto which it is applied, the film-forming materials being based upon an aqueous latex dispersion of polyvinylchloride-acrylic copolymer, which is inherently fire retardant.